Solidarity is Beautiful

In this episode, Olive and Margaret unpack how slavery, segregation, white beauty standards, and racial capitalism shaped the modern beauty industry. From licensing and accreditation to salon culture, hiring, and the political power of Black beauty spaces, they trace how exclusion was built into beauty work — and why real change requires reckoning with that history.Stay tuned for more episodes as they unpack the many facets of the beauty industry and bring research-backed insight, sharp analysis, and bold conversation to what it means to be a cosmetologist, barber, or esthetician in the 2020s.
Follow @beyondthechair for more!
 
If you have any questions, comments or concerns or if you would like to correct or clarify any of the information in this video please e-mail solidarityisbeautiful@gmail.com 
https://www.beyondthechairco.org/
www.maydaycoop.com
 

Beauty School is a Scam…but apprenticeships aren’t. 
In this episode, Olive and Margaret dig into the crisis in beauty education: high tuition, low-quality training, student debt, federal aid controversy, and the corporate interests keeping the system in place. They break down why beauty school as we know it is failing workers, how apprenticeships can open the door to stronger training and labor protections, and what it would mean to build a future rooted in solidarity instead of exploitation.
 
Stay tuned for more episodes as they unpack the many facets of the beauty industry and bring research-backed insight, sharp analysis, and bold conversation to what it means to be a cosmetologist, barber, or esthetician in the 2020s.
Follow @beyondthechair for more!
 
If you have any questions, comments or concerns or if you would like to correct or clarify any of the information in this video please e-mail solidarityisbeautiful@gmail.com 
https://www.beyondthechairco.org/
www.maydaycoop.com

On the inaugural episode of Solidarity Is Beautiful, Olive and Margaret share how social media actually did its job when a simple hashtag - #HairstylistUnion - brought them together.
What they didn’t know then was that they had arrived at the same conclusion from different paths: beauty workers need power, protection, and a better future. That shared vision led them to build their respective projects: Beyond the Chair, a beauty advocacy and education nonprofit, and the country’s first true worker-owned beauty cooperative.
 
Stay tuned for more episodes as they unpack the many facets of the beauty industry and bring research-backed insight, sharp analysis, and bold conversation to what it means to be a cosmetologist, barber, or esthetician in the 2020s.
Follow @beyondthechair for more!
 
If you have any questions, comments or concerns or if you would like to correct or clarify any of the information in this video please e-mail solidarityisbeautiful@gmail.com 
https://www.beyondthechairco.org/
www.maydaycoop.com